Book on WWI includes county residents
“Kansas and Kansans in World War I,” a new book by Blake Watson, describes how Marion County residents and other Kansans were affected by what was known as “The Great War.”
Through letters, newspapers, and other documents, Watson looks at both service in France and the war effort back home.
“Kansans were in the thick of the fighting at the battles of Cantigny, Belleau Wood, the Marne, St. Mihiel, and the final Meuse-Argonne offensive,” Watson said.
Watson’s inspiration for the book was his great-uncle, Ralph Nichols of Oskaloosa, who was 19 when he was shot through the cheek near the Argonne Forest but later returned home to finish high school and then went to what is now Kansas State University, where he was captain of the Aggie football team.
Many young men joined the National Guard, which became part of the 35th Infantry Division.
Another military unit, the 353rd Infantry, was known as the All-Kansas Regiment because of the high number of Kansas draftees.
Marion County resident Benjamin Harrison Black, who reported for duty the day of his father’s funeral, was killed Sept. 12, 1918, during the Saint-Mihiel offensive.
Other men balanced patriotism with religious beliefs. Mennonite leaders — Tabor College professor H. W. Lohrenz of Hillsboro and P. H. Unruh of Goessel — traveled to the District of Columbia in 1917 to request that their pacifist creed be respected.
The War Department determined that Mennonites would be assigned to non-combatant roles such as medical units. Many adherents, however, were mistreated at Camp Funston and elsewhere.
Camp Funston was believed to be the epicenter of the worldwide Spanish Influenza pandemic.
The book describes acts of heroism and patriotism but also mistrust and mistreatment of Mennonite pacifists and ethnic Germans.
German measles became liberty measles, high schools stopped teaching German, and the telephone company in Aulne instructed switchboard operators to cut off anyone who could speak English but chose to speak German.
Four Kansans received the Congressional Medal of Honor: John Balch of Edgerton and Syracuse, Erwin Bleckley of Wichita, George Mallon of Ogden, and George Robb of Salina.
Bleckley died in a plane crash while attempting to deliver supplies to the “Lost Battalion” in the Argonne Forest. According to Watson, Mallon was “a former boxer who jumped into trenches and felled Germans with his fists.”
Charles Orr of Rice County was “the first American hero.”
Clyde Grimsley of Stockton and Salina was one of the first Americans to be taken prisoner-of-war.
Musicians from small towns in northeast Kansas served in the 6th Marine Regimental Band but also were gassed when they helped carry comrades off the battlefield.
Several African-American Kansans served with honor, overcoming racism and segregation.
Watson details efforts to honor veterans, including statues in Axtell, Leavenworth, Oakley, Olathe, Onaga, and Parsons; victory arches in Rosedale, St. Marys, and Wichita; bridges in Independence and Neodesha; football stadiums in Lawrence and Manhattan; a clock tower in Columbus; and Interstate 35 (the “Thirty-Fifth Infantry Division Memorial Highway”). A route around Marion Reservoir is similarly dedicated.